


Ash has a crush on the cute retail assistant

by fa4422



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-23 23:14:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19160968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fa4422/pseuds/fa4422
Summary: Shorter bowls around the corner.“Check this out, it’s a machine that makes ice cream out of bananas! Isn’t that great. Do we have enough money to…” Before Ash has time to scold him the machine slips from his arms and lands on the floor with a sickening crunch. Pieces of plastic are sent flying. There’s no need to examine it any further, the thing is definitely broken.





	Ash has a crush on the cute retail assistant

People expect that being the leader of a gang is all drugs violence and excitement but contrary to popular belief, Ash Lynx is not immune to the mundane formalities of everyday life. He has to sleep, eat and drink like everyone else; he’s partially responsible for the sleeping eating and drinking of a large group of teenage boys too. This tedious responsibility is why he is spending his Saturday morning browsing the aisles of a homeware store with his best friend in tow. 

Ash looks painstakingly normal trying to decide between mugs with square handles and mugs with round handles.  
“Why can’t we just go to Kmart or something,” Shorter complains, his body is drooped with boredom, “most of it’s going to end up broken anyway.”  
“If I give the guys shit stuff they’re going to treat it like shit,” Ash says matter of factly.  
“Just because you give them good stuff doesn’t guarantee they’ll treat it good.”  
Ash brushes him off.”It’s on sale anyway.” He puts the mugs with round handles into the shopping basket. 

In the next isle they look at bowls. Ash lovingly admires the hand thrown raku fired bowls that call to his soul before moving to the sale section. As much as he’d love to splurge, his budget is limited. The pickings aren’t great. Ash frowns as he weighs up the limited options. 

“Hey Ash,” Shorter calls out from another isle. He sounds far more optimistic than he did a few minutes ago. Suddenly he barrels around the corner, cradled rather unstably in his arms is an appliance of some sort.  
“Check this out, it’s a machine that makes ice cream out of bananas! Isn’t that great. Do we have enough money to…” Before Ash has time to scold him the machine slips from his arms and lands on the floor with a sickening crunch. Pieces of plastic are sent flying. There’s no need to examine it any further, the thing is definitely broken. 

“Idiot,” Ash hisses at Shorter. Before the two of them can start arguing a pair of footsteps approach fast.  
“Excuse me,” a peppy voice sings out, “is everything okay?” A shop assistant is approaching and there’s no way for Ash and Shorter to escape.  
“Play dumb,” Shorter nudges him. Ash isn’t 100% sure how exactly they’re supposed to do that, the machine is obviously broken and they’re obviously the ones who broke it. 

The assistant is a young man. He’s short and of asian decent. His brown doe eyes are wide with concern.  
“Excuse me, did you break that?” he asks softly. Shorter steps forward and launches into fluent Mandarin.  
“Ehhh, What is that man saying? I don’t speak English” Ash glares at him. This is a stupid plan. Sure, Ash has picked up a considerable amount of the language from hanging around Chang Dai but it’s very obvious that he is not Chinese. He thinks there’s no chance the ‘dumb foreigner’ card is going to work for him. There is a few moments of silence.

Neither Ash or Shorter would’ve predicted what was going to happen next.  
“It is Mandarin? Yes? I speak! But only a little,” the shop assistant beams at them, proud of his broken attempt at communication. Against the odds, he seems to think well of them.  
“Oh… You speak Mandarin well,” Shorter struggles to find words. That doesn’t happen very often.  
“No no no, you are just being kind,” his smile doesn’t falter at all. Ash notices, a hypnotic, dazzling smile.  
“We are sorry,” Ash points to the floor, bringing the conversation back to the present.  
“Do not worry,” the assistant says earnestly “I will find a…” His brow furrows as he struggles to find a word. He begins to make exaggerated sweeping movements.  
“A broom,” Shorter fills in.  
“Broom,” the assistant repeats testing out the new word. He scurries away into the staff room. 

“That’s a relief,” Shorter relaxes, satisfied with their trickery “let’s get going before he comes back.” Ash can see that the assistant will be disappointed if they abandon him.  
“I feel like a dick,” Ash points out.  
“What’s new.”  
“But I feel it this time. Can’t we just... help him clean up? It’ll only take five minutes.” The bickering continues. In the end Ash gets his way but only because the boy arrives before they can come to a conclusion the boy returns, armed with a bag and broom. 

“Let me help,” Ash says. The boy doesn’t understand this phrase and stares back blankly so Ash settles for pointing at the cleaning utensils.  
“No, no,” the boy stutters “this is my job.” Ash ignores him and starts gathering chunks of machinery and plastic.  
“What is your name?” Ash asks.  
“My name is Eiji.” The boy responds quickly and fluently to this question “What is your name?”  
“Ash.”

The work doesn’t take long. Ash is brimming with thousands of questions to ask this person. So when Eiji thanks him and turns to leave despair sinks in. Ash’s mind scrambles for an excuse to keep him longer but his vocabulary comes up short.

“Someone has a crush,” Eiji is barely out of earshot when Shorter begins to tease him. His friend is 100% right of course. A telltale flush of heat dusts his cheeks and his hands are slick and clammy Ash lets the butterflies in his stomach drop dead and rearranges his demeanor into something more appropriate.  
“Don’t be ridiculous.”


End file.
